One would think that after the failure of expert opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic — the mask flip-flop, the unfounded 6-foot social distancing guidelines, and catastrophic school closures — there might be more bipartisan skepticism about the wisdom of handing significant power to unaccountable technocrats. But not from all those who sit on the Supreme Court, where Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson went to the mat to protect the job security of faceless bureaucrats throughout the federal government’s ever-expanding list of administrative agencies.

The case at hand, Trump v. Slaughter, stems from President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter as part of his broader effort to assert more executive control over independent agencies. He also fired staff at the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.